Ever since I posted about the Chris Brown giveaway, I’ve been receiving comments from people telling me that I shouldn’t promote him because he beat his ex-gf Rihana and that would send a wrong message to all those who are attending the concert. Added to that, Beirut.com surprisingly shared an article on why (and I quote) “attending Chris Brown’s concert would be another slap in the face to all the woman who have suffered at the hands of husbands, boyfriends and fathers in this country? And a slap in the face to all the hard work that KAFA has been doing to combat these societal problems?”, then asked to boycott Brown’s concert and make “this disgusting guy “khalas” in Lebanon “Forever”.” (I have no idea what this last sentence means by the way).
I’m at loss for words to be honest. It’s as if we got bored of boycotting artists because they’ve been to Israel so we started coming up with new reasons to boycott them. In fact, maybe they are right, maybe we should no longer tolerate the likes of Chris Brown and pressure the Lebanese authorities to halt all concerts this summer and stop all artists who may pose a threat to our society or could negatively influence the young and innocent generations, even if this means harming our economy and causing major financial losses to Lebanese companies. Maybe we should start a new movement and make Rihanna’s insightful song “Bitch Better Have My Money” its anthem.
I say we should boycott any artist who at some point in his life:
– Drank too much alcohol and got drunk.
– Used illegal substances.
– Cheated on his wife or gf/bf.
– Posed naked in front of the camera.
– Didn’t properly use hashtags on Instagram.
– Used the F*** word in a concert or during an interview.
– Was fined for speeding or parking illegally.
– Answered his cellphone at the theaters.
– Didn’t call his mother on her birthday.
– Didn’t visit his grandma on Christmas.
– Burned $100 dollar bills to light up his cigar.
– Smoked an Arguile.
– Had a Chicken Shawarma without garlic.
– Claimed that Hummus is not Lebanese.
– Denied the fact that Lebanon is the center of the Universe.
And the list goes on and on …
In all cases, I heard rumors that Riri will join the movement soon but she’s currently too busy partying with Chris Brown and helping him out with his new house.
Note: I am in no way trying to compare what Chris Brown did to speeding or shawarma. He s a terrible human being who served time for what he did but that’s not the point here. What I’m referring to is how we barely make any effort when women are abused in Lebanon but get all excited when it’s about Rihanna. Our government has been refusing to pass a law to protect women for years yet we don’t boycott them or hold them accountable. When NGOs call for demonstrations to stop domestic violence hundreds only show up. Let’s set our priorities straight once and for all.
*high Five*
Bill Cosby, R Kelly, Roman Polanski, and Michael Jackson to name a few…just because they are famous and talented doesn’t mean we should give them a pass for their deviant and assaultive behaviors. If we as a culture, country, or people are going to stand against violence against women and children then we have got to stop supporting those that perpetrate such crimes. I am not for censorship (and it is only censorship if the government enforces it) but “Artists” such as 50 Cent and other rappers that advocate a violent, “gansta” lifestyle are also people we need to speak up about.
It isn’t about bringing down the economy or wanting Lebanon to fail financially…and I hardly think that Chris Brown is going to do wonders to the economy anyway. It is about us putting our values, beliefs, convictions, and morals before our financial or personal gain. As I said on Twitter, some may have the attitude to walk a mile in women’s shoes to raise support and awareness, but when another opportunity comes to NOT promote a thug and domestic violence perp the argument of think of the commerce and people having fun.
People have every right to to listen to his music or attend his concert, but people also have the right to raise a concern when the promotion of such a person is working against human rights and issues many are fighting so hard to solve. I find it quite immature that you chose to post this under humor and list among many “grievous” offenses such as non Lebanese hummus or shawarma bella toum.
I will be pretty bold in stating this, and I am not meaning it personally or saying it flippantly…the way you are promoting his concert and dismissing the concerns that people have about Chris Brown and “Artists” like him is working against all you’ve done to promote groups like Himaya, Kafa, and issues such as women’s rights and citizenship equality. You can’t have it both ways, either stand up against violence at the risk of not getting free tickets and give aways or stop advertising and promoting groups that work against the lifestyle Brown and others promote. Any other approach is double dipping and seems to me to be trying to act like an activist while partying like a gangsta. Sometimes taking a stand means a loss.
Dear Khalil
Many thanks for your comment at first. Can you please explain how does boycotting this specific artist will help women rights in Lebanon and stop their abuse? This guy is on a world tour in countries that punish severely violence and domestic violence . R they all at wrong for hosting him and other artists like him? Wasn’t this artist punished for what he did? By a law that we strive to achieve in Lebanon?
And FYI I don’t like him and I’m not even attending the concert and I’m not getting anything out of this.
Please dont put Michael Jackson’s name along with the rest of these filthy beasts. Michael never abused children. He was never convicted, and never will. Even the closest boys to him still to this day speak only good about him. Check out Macaulay Culkin’s TV interview where he talks about michael. I’m sorry but nobody would call someone who abused them as a child ‘a good friend’…Let the man rest in peace.
Michael Jackson paid out millions of dollars to his victims in order to keep them quiet.
He’s dead now, Why is culkin still silent? Why is he still silent about someone who abused him and scarred him for life. You think money is going to keep someone like a victim of sexual abuse silent? I do believe Jackson did pay those who sued him for personal gain because he just couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted to be left alone.
Michael loved children, he helped millions of children and just because he enjoys hanging around children the world assumes he is some monster. Yes, he slept in the same bed with boys who aren’t his relatives. Yes, it is something outside of societal norms and strange. But he loved it, he loved them. They were the only ones who didn’t judge him when the whole world was going ballistic on him.
I hardly think it’s fair to compare using a cell phone at the movie theater to beating a woman.
Nicolette
I am in no way trying to compare what he did to the list of stuff I came up with here. My point is that this whole boycott thing is becoming a silly trend that we are following here while we tend to forget the things that matter.
How about we support Kafa when they ask us to instead of hating on an artist who doesn’t give a damn about what we think.
How about we actually help arrest women abusers in Lebanon and punishing them like Chris Brown was? How about we set our priorities right once and for all?
Maybe he won’t give a damn what we care but at the same time if he realizes there is pressure for him not to perform or an environment is created that makes it difficult or impossible to perform (ie, unwelcome) then when it hits his wallet he may think differently.
In many cases boycotting doesn’t really work well and some of the reasons for boycotting are silly, but boycotting and refusing to support/welcome are two different acts of “defiance”. We have a culture that welcomes domestic abuse and violence against women and immigrants. We can change that but it will take small acts as well as larger scale protests and governmental changes. We do ourselves a disservice by rolling out the red carpet for thugs like Brown.
Again a lot of artists including Lebanese ones are bad role models for the young generations yet no one seems to boycott them or reject them. How many of them r drug addicts? One of them gifted a TV host a loaded gun on public TV and I wrote about it but no one cared. Why?
Again this is a matter of priorities for me not whether we should welcome brown or not and trust me he wouldn’t care less if he came here or not. If anything other artists will refuse to come If they hear we r boycotting and stuff and that’s not good for us.
I don’t think we need to list all the artists coming here and see which is a bad role model or thug and which is a good guy.
I don’t think boycotting and arresting/punishing abusers are mutually exclusive. Why can’t we do both?
I do get your point about the silly boycotts that seem to be happening more and more often here, and I do agree that there are many things besides (or in addition to?) boycotting that would probably have a much bigger impact.
But I think the way the post reads, with the list of truly trivial “offenses,” really minimizes how serious the problem of violence against women is.
Nicolette,
The problem of violence against women is indeed a very serious one but these random and non-serious attempts to boycott are minimizing its importance especially when they are not followed up properly.
Wtf! Who had a chicken shawarma without garlic?!?!?!?! Blasphemy
najib,
I rarely disagree with you regarding social issues. However; IMHO you have trivialized the abuse against women by adding your list.
Please stay focused man. I agree that boycotts rarely work. However; we can not glorify abusers. He is a repeat offender. People like him would not even be granted visa to enter Canada:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2015/02/25/chris-brown-canada/23981609/
Either you make a stand against these animals or worry about your summer concerts. I doubt it that his impact on the economy is even infinitesimal.
The society has to come off age into civilized norm. Even the animals won’t allow such behavior in the jungle!
Danny,
The last thing I wanted to do is glorify this scumbag but he was punished for what he did in a country that respects women rights, while we are boycotting him here while our law protects him and his likes. It’s all about setting our priorities straight and boycotting and attacking those who are truly keeping our women vulnerable to violence.
I think what Najib is saying here is for the Lebanese people try and put the same effort into passing laws to protect women’s rights and hold women Lebanese men accountable for their crimes.
Its not as if Lebanon has equal protection for women/wives for the Lebanese to be so fierce in their attempt to block this person from coming to Lebanon. Seems just a little hypocritical imho.
Exactly.
Maybe we should start a new movement and make Rihanna’s insightful song “Bitch Better Have My Money” its anthem. You killed me here hahahaha
They’re right Najib, my neighbor promised to stop hitting his wife if I don’t go to Chris Brown’s concert.
Dude…. you have described half of the Lebanese artists in the list of “why we should boycott”, maybe we should boycott them too!!!